Bull Bay 060108
Jan 6, 2008 20:25:04 GMT -1
Post by moniar on Jan 6, 2008 20:25:04 GMT -1
Another enjoyable Sunday morning session in between gales - gotta make the most of days like this in the winter.
Still suffering from a cold, but with some fresh rag left over from Fridays shortened shore session, I set the alarm for 6.30am and crawled out of my warm pit around 7, and went thru the standard routine of getting the kayak out of the garage and the rest of the gear checked off. Arrived at Bull Bay around 9ish after a too leisurely breakfast ;D to find Hughesey already out on the water and fishing. After finding a friendly early morning pensioner to zip up my dry suit rear zip for me ;D I trolley'd the yak down the short distance to the high water mark with the tide just on the turn. I set up my 12 lb boat rod and abu 7500 with a two hook flapper rig with size 4 hooks, and my new fladden maximus rod with shimano charter special and 30lb braid was kitted out with a three white feather rig on 1/0 hooks.
You can just about see Hughesey beyond the rocks
The swell looked quite large further out and there was a huge rip and overfall of water to the left of the harbour entrance where we had planned to try for coalies and pollack - so off we went to the right, hugging the coastline a bit until we arrived at our other favourite coalie mark, a peice of fast water around another headland. The swell was hitting the rocks here with some force so it wasnt really safe to do our normal drift through between the cliff and a submerged rock, jigging shrimp rigs for coalies; so I opted to go around the corner into the sheltered cove whilst Hughesey went further out and north. We both got off the mark with small whiting:
and whilst the camera was out for the first species off the yak in 2008 I took a couple more of the scenery and then paddled out to where Hughesey was, before we both paddled further out towards the gulls and the (presumably) shoal of herring:
After a few more whiting a peice we paddled back down towards the harbour and tied up to a pot buoy some distance from the main headland rip and swell which had started to calm down with the change of tide. This was the best spot of the morning - we were being hit by whiting as soon as the baited shrimp and feather rigs were touching the bottom. Double headers and even triple headers became the order of the next hour, with fish up to half a pound giving good sport on the fladden maximus fine tipped rods.
In the end we got tired of pulling up four rods worth of whiting every 2 mins and moved back to the left headland and tied up to another pot at the start of the main rip. We had no fish here, but it was fun trying to pour a cup of tea from the flask with what was still a reasonable swell and trying to keep an eye on two rods!
This video clip, taken just before I clipped onto the back of Hughesey's kayak to pour my sneaky cup of tea shows the swell hadnt died down that much! There was a strong ebbing current flowing and we struggled to hold bottom with the 4 oz leads we use for this light fishing.
I tried swapping to a baited three muppet rig for ten minutes, before we packed in and surfed into the harbour on the following swell!
A thoroughly enjoyable morning session, making the best of the break in the weather, and a kick start to the 2008 kayak species hunt
Still suffering from a cold, but with some fresh rag left over from Fridays shortened shore session, I set the alarm for 6.30am and crawled out of my warm pit around 7, and went thru the standard routine of getting the kayak out of the garage and the rest of the gear checked off. Arrived at Bull Bay around 9ish after a too leisurely breakfast ;D to find Hughesey already out on the water and fishing. After finding a friendly early morning pensioner to zip up my dry suit rear zip for me ;D I trolley'd the yak down the short distance to the high water mark with the tide just on the turn. I set up my 12 lb boat rod and abu 7500 with a two hook flapper rig with size 4 hooks, and my new fladden maximus rod with shimano charter special and 30lb braid was kitted out with a three white feather rig on 1/0 hooks.
You can just about see Hughesey beyond the rocks
The swell looked quite large further out and there was a huge rip and overfall of water to the left of the harbour entrance where we had planned to try for coalies and pollack - so off we went to the right, hugging the coastline a bit until we arrived at our other favourite coalie mark, a peice of fast water around another headland. The swell was hitting the rocks here with some force so it wasnt really safe to do our normal drift through between the cliff and a submerged rock, jigging shrimp rigs for coalies; so I opted to go around the corner into the sheltered cove whilst Hughesey went further out and north. We both got off the mark with small whiting:
and whilst the camera was out for the first species off the yak in 2008 I took a couple more of the scenery and then paddled out to where Hughesey was, before we both paddled further out towards the gulls and the (presumably) shoal of herring:
After a few more whiting a peice we paddled back down towards the harbour and tied up to a pot buoy some distance from the main headland rip and swell which had started to calm down with the change of tide. This was the best spot of the morning - we were being hit by whiting as soon as the baited shrimp and feather rigs were touching the bottom. Double headers and even triple headers became the order of the next hour, with fish up to half a pound giving good sport on the fladden maximus fine tipped rods.
In the end we got tired of pulling up four rods worth of whiting every 2 mins and moved back to the left headland and tied up to another pot at the start of the main rip. We had no fish here, but it was fun trying to pour a cup of tea from the flask with what was still a reasonable swell and trying to keep an eye on two rods!
This video clip, taken just before I clipped onto the back of Hughesey's kayak to pour my sneaky cup of tea shows the swell hadnt died down that much! There was a strong ebbing current flowing and we struggled to hold bottom with the 4 oz leads we use for this light fishing.
I tried swapping to a baited three muppet rig for ten minutes, before we packed in and surfed into the harbour on the following swell!
A thoroughly enjoyable morning session, making the best of the break in the weather, and a kick start to the 2008 kayak species hunt
